Wells Fargo continues to help people facing a hardship.
Wells Fargo continues to help tens of thousands of homeowners. They have either started or completed three loan modification for every foreclosure filing since October 2009. Wells Fargo offers a variety of programs and outreach efforts to customers who need assistance.
The lender continues to contact thousands of customers who are experiencing a hardship with their mortgage. They are using all methods of communication to reach them, including overnight mail letters and packages, telephone calls, door-to-door outreach by counselors and other methods. They are devoting an enormous amount of resources to the effort. For example, just since the end of 2008 Well Fargo has more than doubled the number of counselors and home preservation staff it has deployed. They now have more than 15,000 U.S.-based staff working on home retention and foreclosure prevention programs.
They are offering new services and programs. As an example, Wells Fargo is working to bring its loan modification efforts out into the hard hit communities. It has expanded two customer contact initiatives for those customers who prefer face-to-face assistance rather than a phone call. The phone number is 1-866-234-8271
Wells Fargo Home Preservation Center
Beginning in March, Wells Fargo Home Mortgage has begun to formally reach out to and invite homeowners in 27 hard hit housing markets to a hearing. The homeowners will work with a housing counselor to discuss their loan workout options at a nearby Wells Fargo Home Preservation Center. This concept was perviously tested with the Wachovia Pick-a-Payment plan (negative amortizing and option adjustable rate mortgage). Initially those customers in a certain number of areas, such as Florida, Nevada, and California were offered this assistance as these areas were experiencing high numbers of home foreclosures. The program was found to be another beneficial way to help keep people in their current homes. The lender is now expanding this service to all of the mortgages that Wells Fargo Home Mortgage services and is responsible for. Through phone calls and letters, those customers facing imminent hardships or a foreclosure are invited to make an appointment to meet face-to-face with a home preservation specialist. You can also contact the bank to begin this process, and when you do, they will explain what the customers should bring with them, to the session to help expedite the process and find the best solution.
Home Preservation Workshops
This is another option for those with a mortgage hardship. Wells Fargo has met with more than 6,500 struggling customers at Home Preservation Workshops that have been held in Atlanta, Chicago, Baltimore, and Phoenix Arizona. Other workshops will take place in other cities.
Weeks prior to these workshops being held in their city, Wells Fargo will both call and send personal invitations to customers who are delinquent on their monthly mortgage payments asking them to attend the event. When they attend, they will meet and work face to face with a housing specialist to see how they can get back on track. In addition, walk-ins are always welcomed as well at these events. Many Wells Fargo Home Mortgage customers attending these workshops have half received loan modifications on the spot. Or they have found other ways to get short term help so they can deal with their hardship, or prevent a future foreclosure. For those customers that have successfully received a workout option, the majority have received a loan modification.
Wells Fargo has begun planning four more Home Preservation Workshops in the first half of 2010--Los Angeles; Oakland, Calif.; St. Paul, Minn.; Miami Florida. they continue to evaluate and review additional housing markets, states and cities that were hit hard by foreclosures.
Wells Fargo Government Mortgage Programs
As of early January, Wells Fargo had almost 140,000 active trial and completed federal Home Affordable Modifications in place. Click here to learn more on this federal program.
They are continuing to offer this government program to its customers. In addition, they have successfully transitioned about 18,000 of these to permanent loan modifications, which is an increase of about 100% since December. They also have about 7,500 permanent mortgage modifications in process and pending completion of some final paperwork and government regulations.
In addition, Wells Fargo has completed more than 350,000 non-HAMP loan modifications, many of which were done using their own solutions. This number also includes active trials in place as of the end of January 2010 and modifications completed since the beginning of calendar year 2009. the lenders continue to fully support this government mortgage assistance program.
|
